Washable Screen Printed Textile Antennas

Abstract

The wireless communication systems are applied in different applications such as computers, mobile phones, satellites and antennas for off-body communication. A lot of efforts were made to have the antennas in a smaller size, flat and with better performance. In the last decade the rigid antennas are replaced with textile in order to be flexible and to be integrated into garments in order to have wearable textile systems. The textile antennas can find use in medical, military and first responders monitoring. The conductivity of the antennas can be achieved by using coated textile materials which are available in the market, conductive threads for embroidery or conductive inks. When using the conductive coated textile it is necessary to cut the patch in the desired pattern but using a simple cutting tool sometimes is not very precise and accurate. Thus in our study we decide to screen print with silver conductive inks on Polyester and Cotton/Polyester substrates. The screen printed antennas are than washed in order to conform that antennas for off-body communication integrated in garments can be easily washed five times.